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“For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you.” (Isaiah 54:10)

Oh precious one, I know you are trying so hard. Trying to shake off the weariness when you get out of bed in the morning. Trying to face the day and hold on to hope at the same time. Trying to bear the weight of hurt. Trying to be more while trying to be less. Trying to push aside the sadness, and find the beacons of light in the darkness.

I know you are tired. Tired of being disappointed — by yourself or by others. Tired of picking up the trail of broken pieces of your soul, of your heart. Tired of waiting for a change. Tired of trying to fit in. Tired of fighting to believe you are enough as you are. Tired of carrying the weight of worry, of drowning in sorrow. Tired of being tired.

I hear you. I am there with you.

“For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing.” (Jeremiah 31:25 NLT)

Know this, dear one — your Father in heaven, He is the God Who Sees. He sees your weariness, He feels the dull ache of your soul. He loves you with His everlasting, patient love. Nothing is ever wasted with God — no hurt, no suffering, no times of trials or times of waiting. He gives beauty for ashes; nothing will ever be wasted in His hands.

So today? Quiet down to hear His gentle whispers, that tell of His love for you. Still for a moment, to grasp the wonder of His grace. You were bought at a price; you were washed clean and sanctified. You have been redeemed; you have been set free. You are a new creation, being renewed day by day. You are being transformed into His image; He calls you by your name. He calls you beloved; you are His.

There is no need to try so hard, to be perfect and to get it all right. The Lord is calling you to come to Him and find rest for your soul. Tell Him of your hurts and hardships, tell Him of your weakness and failures and difficult days. He will never turn away; He will never reject you. He is here, willing to heal you and bind you up. He is here, waiting for you to let go of the weight of this life and turn to Him. He is here. He is love.

“Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.” (Hosea 6:1)

I love these words of encouragement and hope by Charles Spurgeon:

“No stars gleam as brightly as those which glisten in the polar sky. No water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand. And no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs through adversity. Tested faith brings experience. You would never have believed your own weakness had you not needed to pass through trials. And you would never have known God’s strength had His strength not been needed to carry you through.”

This week has carried a lot of tiredness around with it. I have been thinking about grace and miracles lately — how much I see both of those in my own heart turning to the Lord every morning, in every moment, with every heartbeat. Sometimes the greatest miracles are seen in the most commonplace things and people, and this is what I think I completely miss so often miss. Yet there is grace for every moment: a new beginning every day, a heart that still beats through the ache and the hurt, a sun that rises every morning with me. These are the small things in the midst of the mundane — but these are the things and the moments that matter.

These songs have been playing around here this week: The Sower’s Song by Andrew Peterson and Song of My Father by Urban Rescue. Andrew Peterson’s music is absolutely beautiful. The lyrics always touch my soul with honesty that often speaks right into the place I am in.

Here are some good reads to edify your soul:

Your Weakness Is Not Meaningless. God’s beautiful design of love can be seen in our limitations. Our greatest experience of God’s love is in the place where we need His grace the most to meet us in our weaknesses.

It’s Okay to be Damaged – All the Best People Are. This post by Scott Sauls is absolutely beautiful and so important. “In the end, the more conservative we are in our beliefs about the Bible – the more we truly believe every single word of it – the more liberal our loving will be. Because the narrow path of Jesus? It always leads to a broad embrace”

You Can Forgive Your Parents. This post by Marshall Segal spoke right into my soul and into my life — and maybe you are in a similar situation. “Christian, your parents did not get in the way of God’s plans for you. They were God’s plan for you. Can you look back at your life, with Joseph, and say that? Ultimately, my parents did not send me here; God sent me here. Whatever my parents meant for me, God meant it for good. He did, he is, and he will — in every hardship and in every relationship.”

For the Dark Days.Mary Anne Morgan’s photography is absolutely wonderful; but her words surely touch my soul. Her pondering on the light that God provides, brought light to my day, too.

“This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.” (1 Timothy 4:10 NLT)

Brokenness is all around us; it is great within us. The days are long, the battles difficult and continuous. No matter where we look, there is darkness, sorrow, pain surrounding us in waves.

But for us believers, our hope is in the living God.

This hope, it gives meaning to our battles and our suffering. On those days when we work hard and it seems like everything is falling apart. On those days when we continue to struggle, this battle seemingly never-ending and only getting worse day by day. On those days when we are one step away from giving up — there is always hope.

No matter the amount of times our hearts have been broken. No matter the pain or grief we bear. We are all hurting — and we are all looking for hope, for healing, for something to help us with our broken hearts. Our brokenness is carried in the hands of our living God, who made heaven and earth. We have a hope greater than any heartache or sorrow: the hope of heaven, a beautiful eternity with Jesus Christ. The hope of a future with no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:3-5a)

Even when we walk through the land of sorrow and suffering, we never wander alone. Our hearts are held together by the scarred hands of our Lord, the God with us — heaven bent down in humility to walk through the broken road before us, so that we would have enough strength for all that we face.

God is never far away, beloved. He is with us in our suffering, His heart breaking right alongside with ours. He is with us in heartbreak and sorrow, His soul feeling the pain that has captured us tight. When He walked on earth, He experienced betrayal, brokenness, death, sorrow, loss. He is near to the brokenhearted, for He knows well what it is like to carry a broken heart.

There is no darkness that His light cannot overcome. There is no sorrow or shame, no brokenness or pain that the power of His grace cannot overcome.

He is a shield to all of us who trust in Him, all of us who surrender our hearts and give to Him all that we have and all that we are. He loves you, just as you are. He loves you, right where you are. He is always right here, ready to listen to your heart and your prayers.

There is hope because nothing can separate us from His love.

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

This week has been a week of chasing the small glimpses of hope. I have been carrying these words from C.S. Lewis close to my heart: “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” Some days, the hope that I am grasping to hold seems quite far away. Some days, my faith feels smaller than a grain of sand. But there is the promise to stand upon, that there are only better things ahead because our God is a good, good Father and He only gives the best to us.

Here are links to great reads I stumbled across this week:

Choose to Sing into the Darkness. Reading through the Psalms, we hear of the author’s pain and suffering and yet — there is always this one thing: praising God. No matter what we walk through, we can always find a thread of hope in the darkness and we can sing praises to our Lord and Maker.

Learning to Pray in a World of Distractions. In all honesty, prayer has always been a difficult discipline for me. Yet, these words stopped me: a prayerless soul is a dead soul. Yet prayer is how our hearts align with God’s, and it is this communication that is essential to our soul health. So take a moment to read these words, my friend, and let them inspire you to bring you closer to your Maker in prayer.

Hope. Mary Anne Morgan’s photography always stops me, and these words on hope are too good to miss.

Don’t Resent God’s Training Ground. “So, serve wholeheartedly today. Make the most of every opportunity. Run the race marked out for you with patient faith and persevering hope, setting your heart on the promise that he is working all things — all suffering, all waiting, all confusion, all reroutes, all journeys in the wilderness — for the good of us who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).”

Why you need a reading plan & good books. “When your battle is hardest, God always sends you arms — arms to hold you, arms to hold up your hope, to hold up your hurt and let it transform into more heart. To whisper you are Beloved and you are Brave and on the days when you feel unBrave, you are not undone, but undoubtedly are carried forward by the determination of grace.”

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I'm Ronja (pronounced RON-yah). Follower of Jesus, working on a Master's Degree in Speech & Language Therapy. I live in southern Finland. I'm fueled by coffee & grace. I am here to encourage and to share the light of grace with the beloved children of God.